Howdy, gang – my name is Carlos, and I’m STOKED to be back in an E36 M3.

A little background on my ///M3 journey. I first fell in love with M3s when I was between 14-15yrs old when I had the opportunity to drive my uncle’s track-prepped E30 M3. Crazy as this sounds, he taught me how to drive stick in that car, which is what ultimately started my love affair with the marque. Fast forward to my Jr. year in high school when my buddy’s dad purchased a brand new E36 M3; that car was my first experience going over 100+ MPH. (sadly, as a passenger..) After that ride, I was pretty much fixated on getting an M3 of my own at some point in my life.

Fast forward 5yrs – still finding my footing post college, but was feeling fresh AF after landing my first real job, that’s when I snagged this little diddy: 1997 E36 M3 in Techno Violet Metallic. I was absolutely in love with it. Perfect in every way, except for the fact that it had a host of electrical gremlins and came riding on some of the ugliest 19in. wheels I had ever seen. To make a long story short, I fixed the electrical setbacks, redid the suspension, ditched the 19s for some sweet 17” BBS LMs, reflashed the tune with a shark injector [I think that’s what it was called at the time], put on a Stromung exhaust [still my fave sounding set of pipes on an E36], and hit it off w/ an ActiveAutowerke CAI. Resulting in what you see below:

Sadly, I lost the car in a bad wreck after having owned it for ~3yrs. Cliff notes: unlicensed/uninsured driver blew past a stop sign and we hit around 35-40mph. Thank goodness nothing else happened other than some cuts and bruises, and an unrecognizable E36..

After the wreck, I set out to find another E36, but ultimately came up short. Came across too many that were trashed, and this was the time when E46s started to hit the depreciation curve, so I hopped on that bandwagon instead. Net/net – I loved that car, it was fast out the box, had a lot of the modern creature comforts my E36 lacked, and was dead reliable. BUT… because I didn’t part w/ my E36 on my own terms, I never looked at it through the same loving eyes as I did my purple people eater. I told my girlfriend at the time [now my wife; bless her heart for putting up w/ my car + modding addictions] that if I ever got a shot at another TV E36 M3, I would take it. That time would come 9yrs later, but we’re not at that point in the story yet, so for now, enjoy a few pics of the E46. Nothing crazy in terms of mods; suspension, K&N drop in, and some staggered BBS LMs.

A few years after picking up the E46, I had a chance to get reacquainted w/ the ONE that started it all.. THE E30 M3. After looking for the right one for 9+ months, I got crazy lucky and found a solid example right in my backyard, 15min. from where I was living at the time. Way too much work on the car to list in this thread, but here’s how the car sits today with BBS LMs [seeing a theme here?]:

Then April of 2016 happened; I got my second shot at Techno Violet E36 and immediately moved on it. [and sold the E46 after 8-9yrs of ownership to make room for it] But this time around was different, this time the car was a Dinan SC’d example with a very unique history. (Read all about it here: http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showt...ratty+rockstar) Here’s what it looked like the day I picked it up:

While the car was in solid nick when I picked it up, it still needed some substantial work to get it where I wanted it to be. First thing’s first, I set out to find a set of [you guessed it] BBS LMs; this time in 18” guise, and in square set up measuring 9.5 @ all four corners. The thing is, I had no idea if these wheels would actually fit at all four corners, so I had to do a CRAP load of measuring to see if it would all work. After mocking things up, I realized I was going to have to go w/ a coil over set up to make it all come together: enter Ground Control. I picked up their street set up w/ GC camber plates. [If I could do it over again, I would have gone w/ different plates, but that’s a story for another time] While I was waiting for the suspension to be built, I dropped the car off for some body and paint work.

If you read the thread referenced above, then you’ll know that the paint on this car was TIRED and needed a complete respray. It also needed some body work done to cut out some rust that resulted from the battery vent tube popping off and venting against the metal while the car sat for a year+. It was pretty gnarly, but it was sorted out after some time in the shop. Here’s what it looked like as it was getting some of the body work done, and the day it came out of the shop:

Also, meet my dogs, Porkchop & Sami. They're tops.

Now that the car was out of body and paint, I could finally start tackling the wheels and suspension:

If that wasn’t enough, I decided to replace my perfectly running Powerdyne Super Charger set up for one of Braymond141’s fully refreshed Vortech units.. I did this for mainly two reasons: 1) Vortech is still in business, so replacement parts can be had easily. 2) ability to increase power output on the vortech unit is much, MUCH easier. Hat-tip to Brett on such a solid rebuild + being a fantastic resource while [and after] I was getting things sorted w/ the install. Side note - as much I *thought* I knew about the E36, I quickly realized I didn't know sh1t compared to some true OGs like Brett.

And finally, how the car currently sits today [with a few bonus shots w/ the bros side-by-side]

There's more to cover, but I'll cap it there for now. Appreciate the time, and again, STOKED to be back in the E36 game. Cheers, CT.

Wow, congratulations!! I didn't realize that car was sold, I enjoyed reading his thread. But now looking at this one, I have to say I need to go give my TV some attention to make it shine like yours! Yours is so perfectly modded.

Question: Now that you've had all these awesome M3's, what drew you to the E36 for a second time (especially at the expense of that gorgeous E46)?

Congrats and welcome back to the Techno gang! They're so hard to find these days, which makes me really scared to lose mine the way you did yours the first time.

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